In Ethiopia the practice of volunteerism is a core value in social relation. As seen in day to day experience of the family, friends and other social groupsin the country, includingtraditional associations like“Edir” “Debo” “Ekub” (local saving money), Sunday school youths, “Zeka” at Mosque & other faith-basedvolunteering... the society has a deep-rootedculture of supporting each otherduring different catastrophic Emergency and disaster response services like death, fire, flooding etc. and during ceremonial expenses like in wedding etc. Even though some volunteerserviceshave existed throughout Ethiopian culture, there are other clinical voluntary services like elder palliative care, biological organ donation (kidney, and eye after death), blood donation andsurgical intervention at different hospital by experts. 

Toimprove the long standing custom of the society (existing experiences) and address the need of the community in health which is due to the very rapid socio-economic change in the country, it is mandatory to design a standardized guide/protocol to coordinate, regulate and promote sustainable, need based and efficient volunteerism services both in public and private organizations at all levels in the country.

Core Values of Volunteerism
Despite beingan unpaid activity, volunteerism has a guiding principle to ensure all parties’including beneficiaries’volunteers’and organizations’ mutual interests. These core values include:

• Nonprofit oriented: work without pay or compensation, in cash or in-kind. However, some forms of reimbursementmay be possible, for the out-of-pocket expenses that is incurred in theirassignment (e.g. travel costs or cost of equipment).
• Ethical–impartial, confidential and respectful for the norm and basic human rights.
• Integrity–being honest and having strong moral principles, moral uprightness.
• Inclusion/Inclusive–Understanding accepting and valuing the many differences among people in a society. It includes ethnicity, race, cultural traditions, religious expressions, age, gender, socio-economic status, geography, mental or physical ability and sexual orientation.
• Efficiency–the ability to do things well, successfully, without waste and the use of resources to the intended purpose.
• Accountability–the obligation of an individual to account for its activities, accept, responsibility for the, and to disclose the results in the transparent manner.
• Safety–an individual responsibility to protect their own health and safety, as well as that of their colleagues and service users.
• Compassion–feeling of sensitivity for the suffering of self and others.